The UK government has reversed course on its plan to let AI companies train on copyrighted creative work without permission (The Times). After a campaign led by Elton John and Paul McCartney, ministers backed down — a rare, decisive win for creators trying to hold onto what they make.
But questions about who controls creative work are everywhere. The Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day Florence Price performance is now embroiled in a “forgery” accusation: the piece attributed to America’s first Black female symphonist was so freely re-orchestrated that the leading scholar of her work refuses to call it hers (The Guardian). In Adelaide, newly obtained board minutes show the state premier personally intervened to disinvite a Palestinian-Australian author from Writers’ Week — and the fallout was, by the board’s own account, a “public relations disaster” (Crikey). Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum — which laid off 80% of its staff in 2024 — is now selling its 63,000-square-foot building, with its future unresolved (San Francisco Chronicle).
On a lighter note: Val Kilmer has been posthumously cast in a film via AI, in a role he’d agreed to before his health prevented it (CBC). Ownership of a different kind.
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